Paul says “A few years back when I turned 50, I registered the trademark ‘MizMal (a portmanteau of Mizen-to-Malin). I wanted to create an identity for this challenge – something akin to the increasingly popular British end-to-end challenge of Lands End to John O’Groats, but edgier, remote, a more real experience.
From Bangor, Northern Ireland, I worked in the software industry for many years before identifying that MizMal might be something special. I walked away from a comfortable lifestyle to spend time doing what I Ioved with genuine passion. I was a keen mountain-biker for years and in 2016 I got a few cycling pals motivated to cycle across Ireland. I did all the logistics and trained hard!
Somewhere between The Caha Pass and Molls Gap deep in County Kerry, I began wondering if I could make a business out of this. Two days after returning I registered a limited company. Then I dived straight in with my fledgling company, Wild Atlantic Cycling Limited, offering bike tours in Ireland and particularly Wild Atlantic Way tours by bike.
My software background came in useful. Running cycling tours of Ireland is surprisingly technical. Think GPX files, websites, routing software, booking engines and credit card payments for starters. I still recall my first conversation with a ‘live prospect’ … and the questions that I hadn’t even thought of yet needed answers! I did the sums and set a goal of eight customers in year one to break even. To my delight 38 people completed Mizen Head to Malin Head in the company’s first year.
2020 and 2021 were very tough for reasons we all know. But here’s to the future and more ‘adventurous tours for intrepid cyclists’.”
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